Kasandra Keeling, D.M.A.

Professor, Piano, Keyboard Area Coordinator, Music

Contact

Bio

Kasandra Keeling is currently Professor of Music, Acting Associate Director of the School of Music, and Keyboard Area Coordinator at UTSA. She teaches undergraduate and graduate applied piano, as well as applied piano literature. Dr. Keeling received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in piano performance from the University of Houston and was awarded the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her major teachers have included Janice Hodges, Nancy Weems, Alvin Chow, and Larry Graham.
Dr. Keeling is active as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestra soloist, and master class clinician with appearances across the United States, Mexico, at the Royal Conservatory in Canada, and in China at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and the Conservatory of Music at Nanjing Normal University. She has also given multiple performances or performance-related presentations at state and national conferences, including those for the Music Teachers National Association, the American String Teachers Association, the National Flute Association, the International Trumpet Guild, and the College Music Society. In 2014, she was awarded first prize in the professional concerto division of The American Prize for her performance of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini and in 2015, was honored with the President’s Distinguished Achievement Award for Performance at UTSA.
Her students are active as well, garnering performance and academic awards for their various achievements. Under her instruction, her past students have been top prizewinners at competitions such as the Corpus Christi Young Artist Competition, the national level of the MTNA Young Artist Competition, the TMTA Young Artist Performance Contests, and several other regional and local contests. Her students at UTSA have been featured soloists with the UTSA and other regional orchestras and many have been accepted to top graduate programs at prestigious music schools across the nation. In 2008, Dr. Keeling was awarded the Outstanding Collegiate Teaching Award by the Texas Music Teachers Association, in 2017 she was named a Steinway Top Teacher, and in 2023 she was inducted into the Steinway and Sons Teacher Hall of Fame.
In 2014, Dr. Keeling joined the summer piano faculty at the Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan. She also served several years as the Director of the Summer Music Institute for Piano and Strings held at UTSA. She is the co-advisor for UTSA’s Music Teachers National Association Collegiate Chapter and has served on the executive boards of the Texas Music Teachers Association, the San Antonio Music Teachers Association, and was a founding board member of the Alliance Music Teachers Association of San Antonio.

Teaching

Courses:

MUS 3252 1 Adv. Lit-Analysis: Piano Lit I
MUS 3252 1 Adv. Lit-Analysis: Piano Lit II
Private Instruction - Piano (graduate and undergraduate)
Graduate Piano Literature
Practicum in advanced teaching
Chamber Music

Research Interests

Youth Chamber Music
Advanced Repertoire for Small Hands
Four-Hand Literature
Piano Music by Women Composers
New Latin American Music for Trumpet and Piano

Degrees

D.M.A. in Piano Performance, University of Colorado at Boulder (2000)
M.M. in Piano Performance, University of Houston (1996)
B.M. in Piano Performance, University of Houston (1993)

Honors and Awards

Inductee, Steinway and Sons Teacher Hall of Fame, 2023
UTSA President's Distinguished Achievement Award for Performance, 2015
Winner, The American Prize, Piano Concerto Division, 2014
Texas Music Teachers Association Collegiate Teaching Award, 2008

Kasandra Keeling, D.M.A.